Work
Distant Voices
for piano
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About
Distant Voices was written in 1999. I played the first public performance in the New Music Festival in Cincinnati in the same year.
The only one of my compositions in which authentic Chinese folk melodies play a part of the motif, Distant Voices is quite within my body of work. In this piece I use traditional melodies to pay tribute to the musical and singing styles of my native land. Exploring compositional possibilities through these source melodies without distorting their essential folkloric qualities, I recast the rich, microtonal palette of the folk tradition through exploring the sonority of the piano.
The folk-songs employed here are Nostalgia from Inner Mongolia, Love Song from Kangdin from my native Sichuan, and Blue Flower from Shanbei. Each melody serves as the departure point for the three movements that are developed through processes resembling the variation form. The first movement is introspective and desolate, reflecting the narrative of a migrant labourer's homesick lament upon seeing snow falling; the second movement is exuberant and restless, evoking dancing and drumming. I dedicated each movement to a remarkable musician, the composer Joel Hoffman, my father, the composer Gao Weijie, and the pianist James Tocco.
Gao Ping, from Gao Ping - Chamber Music, NAXOS
Contents note
I. Nostalgia
II. Love Song from Kangdin
III. Blue Flower
Performance history
19 Aug 2009: Tony Lin in Switzerland
12 Oct 2009: Piano Recital – Tony Lin
15 Aug 2013: Performed by Joe Gorman at The University of Canterbury School of Music, in Christchurch.
23 Aug 2013: Performed by Joe Gorman at St. Augustines Church, in Christchurch.
26 Oct 2013: Performed by Joe Gorman at St. Augustine's Church, in Christchurch.
Performed by Gao Ping at the Auditorium of the Banque de Luxembourg, Luxembourg, on the 23rd and 24th November, 2004